It sounded like sour grapes, California Chrome co-owner Steve Coburn's Saturday evening tirade against the powers that be in his sport for allowing a horse to take "the coward's way out" and ruin another Triple Crown bid.

But Coburn was completely right. It is absolutely ridiculous that this sport allows owners and trainers to cherry-pick Triple Crown races to rest their horses while others gamely slog through every one and end up losing out on the sport's ultimate prize because of it.

It has been 36 years since a horse won racing's Triple Crown. The way things are going, we might never see another.

"I'm 61 years old and I'll never see in my lifetime another Triple Crown winner because of the way they do this," Coburn told NBC Sports after California Chrome lost to three horses that among them had been in exactly one Triple Crown race before Saturday's Belmont Stakes.

"It's not fair to these horses that have been in the game since Day 1" at the Kentucky Derby, he said. "This is not fair to these horses that have been running their guts out to have somebody come up (without racing either the Derby or Preakness). This is the coward's way out in my opinion. You know what, if you've got a horse, run him in all three."

California Chrome, the popular winner of the Derby and the Preakness, got boxed in along the rail early and made a gallant push to the outside late, but could manage just a fourth-place tie in the 2014 Belmont Stakes.

The winner of the third leg of the Triple Crown was Tonalist, who was far more rested than Chrome after sitting out the Derby and the Preakness. The last anyone saw of Tonalist, he was winning the Peter Pan Stakes right here at Belmont Park on May 10.

So a horse that could hardly have been fresher takes on a horse that grinds through the first two legs of the Triple Crown, not to mention the travel from Louisville to Baltimore, to, finally, New York, and beats him?

How is this fair? Name another sport that allows such foolishness? You either participate in a season, or a series, or you don't.

And how is this a good thing for horse racing, to allow the Belmont field to be so stacked against the winner of the Derby and the Preakness that the best and most exciting thing that can happen in this sport is becoming unattainable?

Horse racing's leaders can change this by mandating participation in the Derby and the Preakness to compete in the Belmont. It's very simple. Or, if there are too many concerns about the health of the horses in this current five-week schedule, space out the three legs of the Triple Crown over several more weeks, and again mandate 100 percent attendance for any horse to be in the Belmont field.

Or, ignore Coburn and do nothing and just watch your sport once again sink into oblivion, the bubble burst again, this time for reasons that seem anything but fair to an American sports-loving public that knows far better than to accept such nonsense.

That's right, California Chrome's two Triple Crown races were more than the three horses that beat him, combined.

Chrome tied for fourth with Wicked Strong, who finished fourth at the Derby and then took the Preakness off.

So it can safely be said that California Chrome was the top finisher at the Belmont among those horses that actually participated in the entire Triple Crown. Now isn't that something?

Coburn's barrage after the race was nothing new. He had been talking about a system that is patently unfair all week leading up to the race.

"I think triple means three," he told USA TODAY Sports' Gary Mihoces. "But then we have horses who don't do good in the Kentucky Derby and sit out the Preakness and come back in the Belmont. Then you have horses that are nominated for the Triple Crown but stay out of the first two to come back and upset the apple cart. I just think if you're nominated for the Triple Crown, if you can't make enough points to get in the Kentucky Derby you can't (get) in these races, none of them. It's all or nothing … That's why there's been so many horses that have the ability to win the Triple Crown that haven't, simply because of these rules."

Now we can add his horse to the list.

It's absurd that the powers that be in horse racing allow horses to come and go as they please during these five weeks. If they don't fix this, they're going to render their sport's Triple Crown extinct.

CALIFORNIA CHROME FAILS IN TRIPLE CROWN BID:

California Chrome was looking to become the first horse to win the Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978. He dead-heated for fourth place.

Exercise rider Willie Delgado hot walks Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner California Chrome after a workout Monday, June 2, 2014, in at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y. California Chrome will attempt to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978 when he races in the 146th running of the Belmont Stakes on Saturday. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) ORG XMIT: NYJJ106 Julie Jacobson AP